Dawit Kebede joins Ethiopia's exiled journalists

New York, November 21, 2011--Dawit Kebede, managing
editor of Awramba Times, one of Ethiopia's two remaining independent Amharic-language
newspapers offering critical analysis of local politics, announced today that
he was forced to leave the country after he received a tip last week about
alleged government plans to re-imprison him. Kebede also said that the paper was
unlikely to continue publishing.

Kebede, whom CPJ honored a year ago for perseverance in pursuing independent journalism in Ethiopia despite ongoing government intimidation, told CPJ from Washington, D.C., that official sources warned him on Thursday of preparations by the Ministry of Justice and Government Communication Affairs to revoke the conditional pardon that authorities offered in 2007 to him and other imprisoned journalists rounded up in a brutal November 2005 crackdown.

"Dawit Kebede has endured
all of the Ethiopian government's tactics to silence independent voices, from official intimidation
and state-sponsored smear campaigns to the jailing of his staff. The silencing of Awramba Times leaves the country with
only one remaining independent critical newspaper," said CPJ Africa Advocacy
Coordinator Mohamed Keita. "The
Ethiopian government's persecution of those seeking to report the news and
raise critical questions about issues of public interest has driven the largest number of journalists in the world into exile."

Kebede said the tip-off followed an October 19 editorial in
the ruling Ethiopian Peoples' Revolutionary Democratic Front-controlled state
daily Addis Zemen, which accused
him of links with "terrorist groups," called on the government to
revoke his pardon, and urged security forces to "to take action" against
him. Kebede sued Addis Zemen earlier this year
for defamation over a series of similar articles, but a judge
dismissed the lawsuit in July, according to CPJ research. Kebede said he has also been the target of
attacks by pro-government media personality Mimi Sebhatu on her station, Zami FM Radio.

In interviews with
Bloomberg today, both federal prosecutor Birhanu Wendimagegn and Ministry of Justice
spokesman Desalegn Teresa denied allegations that they were planning to arrest Kebede.

In 2007, Kebede
pleaded guilty to trumped-up charges of "inciting
and conspiring to commit outrages to the constitutional order" over an
editorial criticizing extrajudicial killings of unarmed protesters by security
forces in 2005. He was sentenced
to four years in prison but was released on conditional pardon. With his former
newspaper Hadar banned, he launched Awramba Times in March 2008, after the
government initially denied
him a license.

In May, the
government-controlled media regulatory agency Ethiopian Broadcasting Authority
accused Awramba Times of "inciting
the public to destruction" over what it called "negative reporting" of ongoing
inflation and the unrest in North Africa and the Middle
East, according to news reports. In June, authorities imprisonedAwramba
Times Deputy Editor Woubshet Taye on vague terrorism charges.